Introduction to Digital SPR and its use in assessing the binding kinetics of DART (Drugs Acutely Restricted by Tethering).

 

Digital SPR^TM is a next-generation technology for characterizing biomolecular interactions. By combining digital microfluidics (DMF) with SPR, digital SPR systems can effectively bypass common challenges found in traditional SPR and BLI platforms.

 

Understanding drug mechanisms in complex systems, particularly in the brain, remains challenging despite advancements at the molecular level. Yet, cell-specific technologies like DART provide a promising solution, enabling targeted drug delivery to genetically defined neuronal cell types, thereby allowing the observation of the drug effects on brain dynamics and animal behavior. (Shields et al., bioRxiv, 2022, Shields et al., Science, 2017).

 

The underlying principle of DART technology is the covalent interaction between a protein and its target chemical molecule. In this webinar, we will discuss the optimization of the covalent capture affinity of DART, and the subsequent functional analysis of binding kinetics, using digital SPR.